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If you buy one of the 14" cold saws with carbide blades instead of the abrasive blade types you'll never regret it except the one time you reach for your wallet at the check out line. No smell or nasty blade binder to breathe, less mess, little to no heat, better accuracy. The only time my abrasive saw ever sees action these days is if I'm cutting something hard or unknown. Built this base and mounted to this roll around.

[SIZE=2][FONT=arial]If you buy one of the 14" cold saws with carbide blades instead of the abrasive blade types you'll never regret it except the 866095one time you reach for your wallet at the check out line.

From what I've seen, also on subsequent visits to replace the blade but that shouldn't be too frequent I suppose

From what I've seen, also on subsequent visits to replace the blade but that shouldn't be too frequent I suppose

When I bought my saw I also bought an aluminum, stainless, and extra carbon blade (cry once). They're $75-$85 each on Amazon and I got the extra general purpose blade for free as a promotional thing from Amazon for the amount of spend. I've had the saw for over a year now and have cut a lot of metal with it. A lot of that was 2"-3", 1/4" wall, square and round tube. FWIW based upon my initial experience, I'd tell ya it's the other way around. For the amount of metal cut I would have spent a lot more on abrasive blades than $85. I used my general duty carbide blade to cut sprues and that really degraded it because of the dross and residual sand. So I sharpened it and it's my blade for cutting in-knownium but before I did that, it was still going strong and I don't know how much longer it may have gone if I had stuck to clean mild steel with it. It certainly is motivating enough to take the time to put the right blade for the right job on the saw. I now have a used up bi-metal garbage blade for my band saw for cutting sprues and same (old nackered carbide) for my table saw if it lends itself better.

If my wife ever see's the pile of receipts from all this I'll be moving in with one of you guys.
Hope you have an extra bedroom or guest house.

After careful consideration, I'm going with the 872.
Didn't really wan to spend the extra money, BUT .........
I've used the disk saws a few times before and would rather eat a pile of dry sand with seagull shit in it.

For the same/similar price, you can probably get a band-saw with larger capacity and cheaper blades. Either way beats the heck out of a hack-saw.

Probably true, but no comparison in speed or quality of cut. At 4" diameter 1/4" wall pipe, capacity is pretty darn good for that cold saw. I cut 1" bar no problem but if you cut bigger diameter bar band saw is better.....too many teeth in contact for the cold saw, will bill too much heat and eat blades. It wouldn't stand a chance in the environment of my business but as a home saw, I've been quite please with it for the money.

On the blades being cheaper, maybe, but not so obvious to me on amount of metal cut, especially if your buying bi-metal band blades and not welding your own. For my 20" vertical I bought a roll of Lenox BiMetal and it was $168 delivered. Each blade is nearly 12ft so I can get 4 blades out of the 50ft roll....~$42 each. I can say this with certainty, there is no way my band saw blade can cut as many in2 of mild steel than that cold saw on a single blade, and I've worn out a few on my band saw. But with care and the right feed and speed it does quite well cutting 1/4" plate.

You WELD your own bandsaw blades? WOW! That's either brilliant or cheap. Either way, I'm on board for sure! Butt weld with the tig I'm assuming?

Originally Posted by chubbyjp77

They make special welders for band saw blades. Most of the larger industrial units have them included as part of the machine.

What Chubby said. I use the welder mounted to my DoAll saw at work. They are butt welds and fuse in air. Just need to take care to clean and prep the surface near the joint. Takes 10 minutes to weld, anneal, and dress the joint.